Gamification Increases Completion Rates in Massive Open Online Courses

Introduction

Among the various e-learning courses offered, one option is the MOOC model, which is “a course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2016) “with a publicly shared curriculum and open-ended outcomes” (McAuley et al., 2010). In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, texts and problems, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions among students, professors and teaching assistants. MOOCs integrate the connectivity of social networking, the facilitation of an acknowledged expert in a field of study and a collection of freely accessible online resources. MOOCs build on the active engagement of several hundred to several thousand attendees who self-organize their participation with regards to learning goals, prior knowledge and skills as well as common interests (McAuley et al., 2010). Figure 1 shows basic characteristics of a MOOC.

Figure 1.

Meaning of Massive Open Online Courses (Plourde, 2013)

MOOCs are often offered through virtual education platforms that have been custom built for the provision of such courses, such as Udacity, edX and Coursera (Ong & Grigoryan, 2015; Pang et al., 2014; Yuan & Powell, 2013). Yuan & Powell and Daniel et al. are two studies, among others, which view the MOOC phenomenon as the outcome of both the techno-media convergence process as well as the massification of tertiary education (Yuan & Powell, 2013; Daniel et al., 2015). MOOCs are viewed by some more as an opportunity for public institutions in the education sector with smaller budgets and less as a threat, alluding to the access advantages that such courses could bring to certain groups in society, such as retirees or employees looking for professional development (Ong & Grigoryan, 2015). This view of MOOCs as an opportunity to advance lifelong learning is equally held by official European bodies, viewing them as agents of change in higher education (De Freitas et al., 2015; European Commission, 2013; European Parliament, 2015).

For the purpose of this literature review, the researchers have focused on MOOCs and their completion rate. The authors have set two research questions. Firstly, why do MOOC participants not complete their courses? Secondly, how can the course completion rate be increased?

Background

Higher education institutions have become more receptive to integrating new technologies into their teaching and learning processes over the last decade. One of these new technologies has been MOOCs (Costa et al., 2018). Figure 2 illustrates the rapid growth of MOOCs from 2012 to the end of 2018 (Shah, 2018).

Figure 2.

Growth of MOOCs from 2012 until the end of 2018 (Shah, 2018)

Taking the perspective of the supply side, Hollands and Tirthali looked into why institutions offered MOOCs, with a qualitative study of 83 interviews with leaders of 29 US institutions. They identified 6 main objectives (Hollands & Tirthali, 2014):

• 1.

  expanding the institutional scope and attracting a larger number of students (size),

• 2.

  building and maintaining their brand (prestige),

• 3.

  improving their finances by reducing costs or increasing income,

• 4.

  improving their educational results,

• 5.

  innovating in teaching and learning and

• 6.

  conducting research on teaching and learning processes.

MOOCs by nature have some common characteristics: short videos, quizzes, peer base and/or self-assignment and online forums (Glance et al., 2013), yet there are pedagogical differences in courses even in the same platform (Bali, 2014). Offering or participating in a MOOC has benefits for each party; however, concerns are arising on the real value behind MOOCs. This is predominantly due to higher dropout rates. Usually, only a 7-13% pass rate or sometimes even less than that go on to complete these courses (Jordan, 2014).